ABC Buys Boston Biology Comedy From Allison Kiessling & Jamie Tarses

Written by Kiessling, the untitled comedy centers on a book smart Boston Southie who has never fit in with her blue-collar, Irish Catholic family. She finds an unlikely family in a group of misfits at the university research lab that she’s been assigned to.

Kiessling co-executive produces, while Tarses executive produces.

This is the second sale at ABC and ABC Studios for Kiessling, whose comedy spec The Mighty Camilla was bought by the network and studio two seasons ago with Melissa Rosenberg producing. Last year, the project was redeveloped at TV Land, which ordered a second script, while ABC Studios ordered a blind script from Kiessling, which resulted in the Boston Biology comedy.

On the feature side, Kiessling is a writer on Millennium Films’ Expendabelles, a female spinoff of the Expendables franchise, which has Helen Mirren, Penelope Cruz, Queen Latifah, Naomi Watts, and Eva Longoria attached to star.

Kiessling comes with writing pedigree — her grandfather, William C. Anderson, was a Hollywood screenwriter and novelist. He adapted his book BAT 21, which became the 1988 Vietnam action drama starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover.

Kiessling, who graduated from Harvard with an Master’s in education, serves as President of Harvardwood, a 5,000-member alumni association that pairs recent Harvard graduates with established Hollywood alumni, and relaunched the Harvardwood Writers Program for TV.

She is repped by Original Artists and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Tarses has sold several projects to ABC this season through Bluegrass FanFare, her new company with Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark, which is under an overall deal at ABC. They include a single-camera comedy about a hip-hop artist-turned-mayor from writer Jeremy Bronson and Daveed Diggs, which has a cast-contingent pilot production commitment, and Women In Black, a comedic drama from writer Amy B. Harris.